What Hurts The Most
by MsASparrow
Summary: A Chazz fan fic about his brothers and stuff... takes place before Season 2 but after Season 1 of YuGiOh Gx. Rated M for possible incest and yaoi in later chapters. RnR please
1. Chapter 1

Jaden fidgeted slightly in his seat only to have Syrus jab him hard in the back and whisper "Jay – sit still… everyone's watching…"

Jaden just grinned widely, "No one cares Sy, it's only a meeting and it hasn't even started yet – hey I say, if we run fast, we can go get some tacos and get back before it's too late… whatcha say?"

"I say we don't have time – it's already five minutes after it should've started," typical Jaden, always thinking with his stomach, Syrus sighed and lent back in his seat. To tell the truth no one was watching, it was just Jaden's constant movement was starting to make him feel edgy. But then again Syrus always did get edgy when they were called to big meetings with the whole school about things they didn't know.

Earlier that day the entire student body had received messages to meet in the duel arena for an announcement from Dr Crowler – or was it Principle Crowler now? Syrus didn't know, and as he looked over at the fidgeting brunette next to him, he doubted very much whether Jaden did either. Besides, the point was Crowler had called them there for this huge announcement, and apparently it was very exciting; though no one knew anything about it, and more often than not the students found whatever Crowler found exciting either deathly boring, or extremely frightening. In fact, most of the students were in a hushed silence not out of anticipation of the announcement but for the fear Crowler was going say something terrifying such as 'compulsory line dancing classes' were about to begin or something. However, Syrus was sure of the fact that whatever was about to said, was not going to be good.

Jaden moaned just then and his stomach growled loudly, "Syyyy I'm so hungry…" but then he was forced to shut up because Alexis lent over and hushed him.

"Jay – it's about to begin… shh or I won't be able to hear," she said, giving both Syrus and Jaden looks much like that a teacher might give two unruly pupils. The pair sighed and lent back in the seats some more, Jaden's stomach giving one last grumpy growl.

However, Alexis had been right, as she'd spoken Dr Crowler had made his way into the middle of the hall with a microphone and then he began to speak. "This is the only place we could fit you all in; so don't get your hopes up – we're not about to have a duel…" Syrus heard Jaden moan slightly from next to him, "However I have some rather exciting news for you all…"

Syrus slid closer to the edge of his seat, as Crowler was speaking, anticipation coursing through him. Syrus had never been one to be able to withhold excitement much and Crowler was speaking so annoyingly slowly – making the entire student body hang off every word; you could see from the man's face he was merely toying with them.

"This afternoon," Crowler continued, "Will see the arrival of…" he paused dramatically, "…one of the greatest duellers of all time!" Jaden sat up straight at that – his expression clearly reading 'I though that was me…' "Aster Phoenix will be-..." he was cut off by the massive uproar caused by his statement.

"Aster Phoenix? Oh my god like he's a real pro…!"

"I heard he took on Yugi and won!"

"I love his hair!"

"Do you like think he'll like wanna like join our dorm?!" "He can't he's a guy Mindy…"

Were a few snippets of the conversations that erupted around Syrus. The fifteen year old looked about him to see Alexis staring at Crowler with some intensity, Chazz behind them looking bored as ever, and Jaden who lent over and said, "Isn't that the guy who invented the corn dog?"

Syrus rolled his eyes and was about to reply when Chazz lent forward from his seat behind.

"You really are as stupid as you like, slacker," he said, his usual hoarse voice bored and – was that a hint of slight pity for Jaden? "Aster Phoenix is the world's youngest pro duellist," he smirked slightly whilst Jaden digested this piece of information, "He's never lost a match – and I'd dare say he's even better than you…" the last comment was basically swimming in resentment – it wasn't exactly a secret that Chazz hated the fact that Jaden was a better dueller than him.

"Ha! No way -…" Jaden grinned then looked at Syrus, "- no way, right?"

But Crowler had begun to talk again, above the rabble, "Aster Phoenix will be joining the school for a term!" everyone went quiet to listen to what Crowler was saying, "In the," he stopped, a strange look had passed onto his face and everyone could see it took a lot for the man to carry on, "…Slifer dorm."

The red coats burst into an eruption of happy cheers Jaden turning around hugging Chazz… yes _Chazz_, and then grabbing Syrus whilst saying, "We're gonna have a pro in our dorm Sy – even if he's better than me he'll be in our dorm!"

Chazz whose ears had gone slightly pink muttered something along the lines of, "You're insane…"

And then Crowler spoke again, even though everyone had been sure his announcement was over. "To celebrate his arrival Aster had given us permission to hold a welcome party – of sorts… and so, for this week – and this week only mind – students are allowed to sign up for either a tag team duel or a one on one duel and there will be a competition," more roars of happiness drowned out his next words and Crowler went the same purple shade as his lips as he shouted into the microphone, "The winners of these duels will then go on to duel Aster himself! To watch this competition," Crowler drew breath and then proceeded to scream into the microphone as loud as he could, "We have invited your relatives – who will also be staying the week!" he finished, then looked around the room and added over the sudden silence, in a kind of pained tone, "Have fun."

As soon as he stopped speaking everyone exploded into a frenzied yell of happiness, many of the students punching the air or hugging their friends. All of the students were high fiving or dancing or just generally whooping at the wonderful thought of being able to duel Aster in front of their families. All of the students – except one.

One student, sitting directly behind Jaden, in his black trench coat, had gone as white as a sheet – even paler than usual, if that was possible. He was staring at where Crowler had previously stood in disbelief; a horrible feeling had clasped his heart as the words had left Crowler's mouth._ "We have invited your relatives – who will also be staying the week!" _Chazz Princeton swallowed; having finally escaped his brothers after the summer it seemed that Jagger and Slade were about to show up again.

A/N Alright this is the short – crappy, intro chapter and though it doesn't have much Chazz in it, the rest of the story is mostly about him…

Chazz: Yeah – it'd better.

MsSparrow: It is about Chazz! It is! Really! Anyhoo – r + r please


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Oh God – why do I always forget this thing? I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh Gx or the charries… though I shall put em on my wish list XD**

**Now – on with the story…**

Jaden was the first to realise anything was up with him. The brunette's words immediately snapped Chazz out of his kind of trance.

"Hey – Chazz, you okay?" Jaden blinked at him expectantly.

Chazz just stared down at him for a second and then was immediately on his feet, "I gotta go do… something," lame excuse, true, but right now Chazz couldn't care less. He just wanted to get out of the duelling arena and back to his room. The noise and the celebratory uproar in the hall somehow made it hard for Chazz to breathe; he couldn't think with all the clamour and that was something he desperately needed to do right now – think.

And so he ran for it. Well it started out bolting for the door which included pushing a couple of people to the floor by accident on his way, resulting in a couple of insults thrown his way but Chazz didn't care; he wasn't even listening. Once outside the duelling arena he stopped for a moment and lent against the wall, letting the cold stone sooth him slightly and let him calm down a little.

Jagger and Slade were coming to Duel Academy – his one sanctuary away from them, his one place he could actually be alone and not have to panic one of them would turn up in his face at any moment. The one place he felt safe.

Chazz sighed and pushed off the wall, starting to make his way back to his room. Maybe he could pack his bags and run for it; no wait – he'd _already _tried that and it _hadn't worked._ This time he had no back up plan, he'd have to do what he'd done for so many years but had thought himself blissfully, yet naively free from ever doing again last Spring, he was just going to have to put up with them.

Everyone knew about Slade and Jagger, after all the drama at the school duel where'd he'd lost for North Academy, and then they'd tried to buy out Duel Academy; everyone knew the older Princeton brothers bullied him. But Chazz had never told anyone anymore than that, in fact he'd never told anyone anything, they'd just seen and assumed.

Chazz had been sent to Duel Academy a long time ago, ever since his natural ability for duelling became apparent to the Princetons, and he was placed in Obelisk Blue immediately upon join up. Things had been fine the first couple of years; Slade and Jagger having always of hated Chazz through blame for the death of their parents, didn't bother him quite so much as they did later on life.

Everything was fine for Chazz, a part from the fact that he had to work almost obsessively hard to keep up with his brother's almost insane expectations of him. They wanted him to bed the best even at such a young age, even though it was near impossible. Then Chazz had lost a duel against a Ra yellow – it was fluke on the Ra's side, and a stupid mistake for Chazz who could've easily won the duel, but it wasn't good enough for Slade and Jagger.

And that was when, Chazz decided, it had all started – well _really_ started. He'd started to get over tired, and couldn't concentrate on work, and his brothers pressurised him so much into making the grade, it was impossible for him to do so though. Chazz of course, was easily capable of exceeding all expectations but the pressure, and the late night studying and worrying got to him and he wasn't doing his best. So he'd found something to help him. It had been one or two at first. Mostly anti-depressants to stop him worrying about his brothers, then it had been energy steroids so he could stay awake all day and all night to study. It was around that time he got about one or two hours of sleep a night, if any, he's body was running on empty and he lost his appetite. However, his grades were going up from the persistent learning. But then Chazz found, although he was completely exhausted, he couldn't sleep – so sleeping pills were added to that list. Not light ones either, the heavy-duty kind which kept you sleeping for hours.

Chazz hated that time in his life, he couldn't do anything except study and try to be the best and every time he tried to achieve what his brother's wanted he fell just a little further from the mark. And then he had been demoted and that was when he really believed he had nothing left and he'd done the first, sensible thing, he'd ever done in his life, in his opinion anyway, he'd run away. Far away from anything that hurt, but only to realise he couldn't escape his problems – it sounded so awfully cliché but it was true, they stalked him like an evil smog at the back of his mind. But North Academy had been good, for a while. He'd been able to get rid of a little of what he'd run away from, namely the people at Duel Academy but then came the school duel, he'd lost and been humiliated in front of everyone from both schools, and even though that had really freed him of his brothers, for the time being anyway, the humiliation of the entire thing still hung around him.

But then, yet again, they'd turned up, to cut the story short he and Slade had duelled and finally he'd beaten his brothers at something, at least. And then he really had believed it was the end of it all – how naïve he'd been. For, if it had been over, life would've been fair; but a lesson Chazz had learned, perhaps the hard way, was that life was never, _ever _fair.

And then, for some reason, Slade and Jagger had turned up to collect him for the summer – it was… odd. The 'holidays' had been – Chazz didn't get to finish that thought as right at that moment a strange, annoying, yellow, half naked… being, appeared on his shoulder. Great. That was all he needed.

Before the thing could even open it's mouth Chazz growled a halfhearted, "Go away…" and swatted lamely at the creature with his hand as he walked.

"Hey Boss – isn't it great to be back? Didn't you really miss this place? And Jaden and Syrus and Alexis and all your other friends. You should go talk to them now. They haven't seen you all summer…"

Chazz sighed deeply and just let Ojama Yellow's babblings wash over him until the Ojama stopped; well that was a first, and just sat on Chazz's shoulder, the raven-haired boy could feel its eyes on him.

"Hey Boss, if you're really that worried about your brothers maybe you should go talk to Jaden or someone," Yellow suddenly piped up.

Chazz sent the creature a steely, sidelong glance, "I don't take advice from morons," he stated simply, and then added, "- and I'm not worried." Though, of course, the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach and the fact that he could almost feel his heart beat out of his chest whenever he thought about his brothers being at Duel Academy, proved that statement a lie.

"You know it's okay to be scared-" the Ojama started.

"I'm not scared!" Chazz interrupted him, glad for the almost deserted grounds, seeing as he'd yelled it. However, however much he wanted to fool himself, shouting it louder did not make it true. And when he realised the Ojama had caught him out, and was, perhaps, being a little wiser than him, he slapped at it again, this time with more force.

"You sound scared…"

"Chazz Princeton doesn't get scared!" Chazz exploded, and he swiped at the spirit again, "What do you know about it?! You're pathetic! You're not even real! Just – just go to hell!" he roared, and the little duel monster disappeared, leaving Chazz alone with his thoughts, not a particularly good combination.

The youngest Princeton sighed as he walked; relieved to see he was now only a short walk from his dorm room. What did that annoying _thing _know anyway? How the hell could it possibly understand anything about it…?! How the hell could it except to possible understand _anything _about _anything_!?

Chazz took the stairs to the upper part of the dorm two at a time, just anxious to get back to the warm security of his room, and forget about stupid Slade and stupid Jagger and the announcement he'd heard what must have been less than twenty minutes ago. He just wanted to lie on his bed and sleep, and not have to think about anything. He longed for a state of numbness to all feelings, and that was why he sped up when he came close to his door.

Placing a pale hand on the rough wood that constructed all of the doors in the Slifer dorm, Chazz pushed it open, only to have that same feeling of shock and dread he'd felt in the duelling arena after the announcement, return, ten fold, from what he saw inside.

"So – this is what it's like to be related to the shit of this world."

Chazz stared into the occupants of his room, and his brothers stared right back at him.

Chazz didn't speak, only balled his fists slightly to accumulate the strength of will to remain upright. Right now he wanted to turn and run. But he didn't. Because he knew he had to stay.

Because _Chazz Princeton doesn't get scared_.

A/N Alright, another chapter! Whoo! What a good cliff-hanger XD – dear lord that chapter was odd. I kinda changed my mind about it half way through, but then decided a brief history wouldn't hurt. Hope it didn't bore you too much… :P

Anyhoo, hey to my first (and possible only ) reviewers KeeperOfLostHope and Crimson Eye – glad you liked it… and is it only me or does this not show up on a search? Meh I dunno, I only write this stuff…

Apologise for the hopeless chapter. Next one will be better… promise…


	3. Chapter 3

A/N Well I wasn't gonna write more of this fic, but then I read all of your reviews and it spurred me on to write! So now you know how important your input is to my writing, however the cliff hanger goes unresolved… for a while at least - enjoy.

It was fifteen minutes after the big meeting for the school, and fifteen minutes after the youngest Princeton had run off. However it was also fifteen minutes of complete bliss for a certain brunette, and shock for his best friend.

Jaden and Syrus were two of the last people to actually leave the duelling arena, mostly because Jaden had been so preoccupied with talking he couldn't move. Multi-tasking had never been one of Jaden's fortes however, when news like this hit him he could barely sustain his excitement and so it was either jump up and down screaming, or sitting perfectly still and talking gibberish. Which, incidentally, he'd been managing rather well for precisely fifteen minutes.

"Jay – please will you move?" Syrus tugged on the other Slifer's arm, "If we go back to our dorm we can talk _and _eat all the sweets Chumley brought with him…?"

Finally something that appealed to Jaden's senses, he looked up and grinned, "A chance to duel against a pro Sy… what are the chances of that? Huh?" He had finally begun speak a little slower and with one last tug on his arm from Syrus, Jaden stood up and the pair left the arena.

"Yeah – it's cool…" the blunette trailed off slightly in thought, these were the first words he'd got in edge ways, but now that he came to finally speak his feelings, he found he didn't like what he was thinking.

Jaden frowned down at the mousy looking teen next to him, "Totally sweet…" he uttered.

"But knowing me I probably won't even get past the first stage…" it was sad to see the fifteen year old already defeated by the thought of loosing.

"Nah! You just need a little self-confidence; I've duelled tons of people Sy and you're twice as good as most of 'em. Give yourself a chance."

"But what if I suck?" Syrus saw Jaden start to open his mouth to protest but stopped him, for once speaking over the noisy other boy, "No Jaden – what if I really, really, really suck! What if I embarrass myself in front of everyone?" Jaden winced, not from the words Syrus was speaking, but because of the fact Syrus' still falsetto voice was reaching pitches unknown to man, "I can't enter Jay. I'll just loose…"

"You're right. If you go into it with that attitude you'll be lucky if they don't laugh you off," a voice called down the corridor to the boys; a voice so contrasting to Syrus' panicky, shrill one you would never guess they were related, unless you knew of course.

"Yeah Lil'Zane – you're setting yourself up to fail," another, considerably less formal voice with a hint of a Californian accent, added, "You shouldn't do that; it's bad karma…"

"Zane? What're you doing here?" Syrus piped up; it was like an odd reunion episode of some kind of sitcom.

Zane looked to his little brother, with what people might have said was a hint of a smile, but what was really a bona fide Zane grin, "Actually Syrus I can't say – it's supposed to be-" his words were cut off by his slightly louder friend.

"He's gonna be Aster Pheonix's tag team partner," Atticus said, grinning wildly.

"Atticus – let me define 'secret'," Zane growled, he was ignored.

"And that is why, boys and girls, it's gonna be twice as super cool when me and my sis take him down."

Alexis raised an eyebrow, "Since when are we tag teaming?" she asked, not to amused.

"Since uh-" Atticus grinned sheepishly and pulled the largest pair of puppy dog eyes Syrus had ever seen, "You will won't you? C'mon sis, we're so the best duellists in the school, you wanna win don't cha?"

Rolling her eyes to herself Alexis sighed, "Fine… fine… it's not like I have anyone else to go with anyway…"

"Sweet! But we're not gonna loose cause you can't stop making eyes at Zaney across the arena are we?"

Alexis blushed and punched Atticus in the arm before whispering to him, "Shut up or I will use your ukulele for fire wood."

Atticus squeaked.

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"What're you doing here?" Chazz asked, he had tried to make his voice sound in control – unafraid, but there was a quiver to it that portrayed what he really felt. Obviously Slade and Jagger had heard the slight shake in his tone because they started smirking to each other, Chazz inwardly sighed, there wasn't any point to acting tough anymore, Slade and Jagger knew exactly what was what with him and they had done for a long time… there was no point to pretending to not care what they thought, only that it made Chazz feel a little more secure – as long as he was able to, he would hide behind his façade. "Why did you come back?"

"What? You thought we'd miss out on _this_?" Slade raised an eyebrow and folded his arms in a business like manner, "Miss out on our little brother duelling one of the pros?" there was no question in his voice; it was a statement and Chazz realised at once exactly why his brothers were there. He'd been a fool not to realise straight away; they were there to make sure he got through the competition and duelled Aster Pheonix and made the Princeton name mean something again. Chazz would have tried in the competition anyway, but with his brother's there loosing was not an option.

Chazz cleared his throat, "What… What if I can't do it?" he asked, he knew he was walking on very, very thin ice, but he had to know the answer, he just had to.

Jagger scowled and was in front of the smaller Princeton in a second, "We're giving you a chance, Chazz. We should be through with you, and hang you out to dry, but we're giving you _another_ fucking chance. How many is that Chazz? Huh?"

Slade cut in, "Too many," he growled, "There's no 'can't' to it. You had better get through the duels and you had better win, because we don't give out chances to nobodies – and we don't like being let down. You got that?"

Whilst Slade had been speaking Jagger had moved around behind Chazz and shut the door.

Throat dry, Chazz nodded, however, clenching his fists as though to give himself strength he said quietly, "But I can't help it if I loose it's not my-"

Chazz's words were cut off by Slade unfolding his arms and backslapping the younger boy hard across the face. Chazz stumbled slightly into a cabinet and tried to steady himself; it wasn't that he was unusually weak for his stature, in fact he had done well to stay standing, the force of Slade's blow would probably have sent Chancellor Shepard sprawling.

"Don't answer back!"

A/N Sorry to leave it there, its kinda in the middle of something isn't it? Well I suck. Lol, it's taken me ages to write anything for this fic and I won't have time to write anything else (being Christmas and all) for a while. So here is a sucky update that I'm too tired to complete properly… RnR please :)


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